New Batman, Joker posters for The Dark Knight

There’s a slew of new posters that have been released by Warner Bros. in support of The Dark Knight. At least two of the posters are designed for overseas audiences and the third one is a continuation of the “Why So Serious?” teaser campaign.

The first two, the international pair, are extraordinarily cool. The one shows the Joker, his back to the audience, looking like he’s on the brink of planning something miscivous.

The other has Batman himself staring out of a sleek building window looking down on the city of Gotham as if contemplating where he’s going to be needed next.

It should be noted that this is just about Batman’s first appearance in the campaign for his own movie. While I’m a big, big fan of the “Why So Serious?” effort that Warner Bros. put together I’m really beginning to become concerned the studio is overplaying the Joker. I know we’ve heard reports that Heath Ledger’s performance is great, but if the villains begin to overshadow the hero in this franchise (again) they’re going to wind up with the same problem they did last time around.

But I love both these posters. They’re sleek and stylish and carry a unique look that, coupled with the Dark Knight symbol at the top of the one-sheets, give them the start of a good overall brand effort that could – could – rival the Batman Begins effort.

The third and final poster is not part of this one-two punch but is yet another extension of “Why So Serious?” This one looks like it was meant to be installed on a glass door, on the inside facing out, with the Joker looking like he’s scrawled the copy on the window or something. It’s a good poster and is appropriately creepy.

I’m just hoping Warner has something planned for phase two of this campaign, a phase that’s likely to launch soon now that the new theatrical trailer has debuted. I would imagine once that’s online it will trigger the start of something new and I hope it focuses more on Batman because I think we’re all appropriately impressed with the Joker’s campaign so far.

Not that it’s bad – it’s not at all – it’s just that the campaign needs to come back to Batman eventually and it’s going to be better to do that sooner rather than later I think.

[via Newsarama and via Newsarama and via Screenrant]